By F1 writer and broadcaster James Allen

Reactions to F1 summit meeting

Although nothing concrete came out of yesterday’s meetings it seems progress was made and there is something still to talk about. Everyone seems to have calmed down and there was no more talk of Ferrari leaving the sport following the meetings.

The boss of the Monaco Grand Prix, Michel Boeri, however did have something to say on the subject: “What would the Monaco Grand Prix be without Ferrari? A catastrophe. Like the Cannes Film Festival without the stars.”

Picking up more details of how things are moving, it seems that the teams are pushing to have a more gradual reduction in costs than a straight £40 million budget cap with immediate effect. For many teams it will cost tens of millions to lay off hundreds of employees and that is a major concern. But the idea is to get to that level over two years without the intrusiveness of the budget cap.

Here are some quotes from the key players that I have managed to gather,

Montezemolo: “What we want is that F1 stays F1, that we don’t keep changing things which disorientates the public. We want things to stabilise and over the next two years move to a real reduction in costs.”

Mosley: “It was a constructive meeting but the discussion goes on. The problems are still the same. We’ve made a little progress and I’m hopeful we’ll get an agreement.”

Brawn: “It’s not a situation which is going to be solved simply. But at this point I have to say I am more optimistic.”

Briatore: ” We want F1 to be the best it can be. We want it to be the pinnacle of motor sport, we can’t run GP2 with F1, we have to give the public the best cars and the best drivers. But at this moment I don’t feel a lot of energy in our sport, the public know that something isn’t right.”

Patrick Head: ” The only two teams who don’t want a budget cap are Toyota and Ferrari. But in the end they will find themselves isolated in a corner. Now that Ferrari has lost the law suit in Paris they will not be so rigid. I cannot imagine that it will move far from the £40 million. I have the impression that McLaren could be okay with the budget cap and also BMW will line up behind it.”

Great site, I must vist this & my Twitter page (created to follow yours) several times a day, looking for informative updates, however your quote from Patrick Head, isn’t that taken from an AMuS article which was published prior to yesterdays FOTA meeting? Of course there’s nothing wrong in using the quotes that are out there, it just comes across a little misleading that it was a “reaction to the F1 summit meeting” that you infer.

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I don’t agree Dan.
The FOTA members have ramped this up to a point where they cannot back down, less they become Max and Bernie’s playthings, (I was gonna say bitches but thought better of it) they and FOTA will loose all credibility and Bernie will rightly say they are just a bunch of wimps who cannot agree about anything for more than two races.

That Williams have skewered the other FOTA members squarely between the shoulder blades by already signing up, for my money (I have very little) says they should be kicked out of FOTA forthwith.

Wednesday’s meeting will be the penultimate since I cannot see agreement being reached until the pressure is high enough for someone to crack.
Max has nothing to loose, no reputation left and a Rhinoceros hide he can delay the cap but not raise it or he will loose the new entrants. Bernie has bigger balls than he has any right to and will bluff his way far past any deadline and raise the stakes higher and higher until someone else folds.
No the pressure will be on the shoulders of Luca et al. Because the threat to leave is one thing (and I would really like to see Ferrari, McLaren Renault BMW and co all in LMS P1 as works teams and the series to get some decent tv coverage) but the setting up of any other open wheel series and the concorde (;-)) necessary to do so takes time to set up, meanwhile their backsides would be sued off by Bernie.

Expect more meetings, deadline extensions and then then another year of the current rules.

It is very plain however that Max has not followed the rules as written.